Woodrow Wilson - The significance of the wilson presidency

Wilson and Warren Gamaliel Harding rode together from the White House to
the Capitol for the latter's inauguration on 4 March 1921. Wilson,
aged and infirm, was a living mind in a dying body; Harding, majestic in
appearance, looked every inch a leader. Appearances were never more
deceiving. Harding would soon reveal his moral and intellectual
bankruptcy, and Wilson lived to attend his funeral services.

Wilson, who died at his home in Washington on 3 February 1924, set an
example of leadership, both of public opinion and of Congress, that
challenges every incumbent of the White House. His reconstruction of the
American political economy still survives in all its important features.
Wilson's conviction that the state and federal governments should
work actively to protect the weak and disadvantaged remains the main theme
of Democratic politics.

The Wilsonian legacy in foreign policy is clear, but the degree to which
it continues to guide American foreign policy is ambiguous. Wilson
believed very deeply that the United States was called to serve mankind
through leadership for peace, democracy, and the uplift of the peoples of
the world. But this leadership had to be essentially of the spirit, not of
the sword. It may be that the Wilsonian legacy is now only the conscience
of American foreign policy.